Four decades later, rock critic reflects on Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’

It’s been 40 years since Bruce Springsteen released his “Born in the U.S.A.” album to great critical acclaim. The title track became an instant anthem, a sing-along gem that boomed from jukeboxes, car radios and home stereo systems across the country.

Despite its despairing lyrics, the album somehow carries a message of hope. A returned Vietnam War veteran is scarred, and the middle class is frozen in time. The words are as pertinent today as they were four decades ago.

Springsteen likely didn’t expect the title song to become so popular, nor could he have predicted it would be played repeatedly by right-wing political candidates.

The irony is palpable. The song isn’t patriotic. Remember when Canadian rock band Guess Who was banned from playing “American Woman” at a Richard Nixon-era White House gig?  We’ve been getting lyrics wrong since the gramophone was invented. Ronald Reagan even referenced Springsteen and his “hopeful” lyrics in a speech.

 “There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ and the End of the Heartland,” released in May by rock critic Steven Hyden, makes the point that from the album’s release, Springsteen was painted as a populist “blue-collar hero,” pleasing both sides of the political spectrum.

Like most rock biographies, we learn way too much about the subject. Did you know that during a cross-country road trip in 1983, Springsteen stumbled across a county fair in Texas where fairgoers were dancing the night away to a rock band? What sounds like a perfect tableau for a Springsteen song instead sent the rocker into deep despair, and he sought out a psychiatrist for help. He would later write a song about the county fair and the mystical rock group.

Hyden delves deep into the roots of the 12 songs on the album, which he writes is a “landmark in American popular music.” For the record, the album has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and produced seven Top 10 singles.

We learn that Springsteen’s producer pushed him to add the sultry side-two song “Dancing in the Dark,” which likely saw more plays on the nascent MTV than any of his other songs. At a minimum, it propelled Courtney Cox into stardom. Interestingly, Cox isn’t named in the book.

We also learn that more than 5 million fans attended the “Born in the U.S.A.” tour during its 15-month run, making Springsteen the No. 1 arena rocker, according to Hyden.

In the chapter “Man in the Room,” Hyden comments, “If you want to see an emotionally repressed man in your life cry, send him to a Bruce Springsteen concert.” (It may be due to a sore butt since the four-hour concerts were exhausting for both performers and the audience.)

Whether the album was meant to make a political statement is one question Hyden relentlessly pursues in the book. Even 40 years later, boomers are roaming about their hometowns, crooning about the mythical place portrayed in “My Hometown,” which, if you listen carefully to the lyrics, isn’t so nostalgic.

When commenting on why Springsteen wrote the album, Hyden writes, “He believes in the power of rock music to heal wounds caused by political neglect and cultural strife.”

The book also delves into the influence that Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson had on Springsteen’s lyrics. Hyden writes that when Springsteen was 7, he saw Presley on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and later said, “It was the evening I realized a white man could make magic; that you did not have to be constrained by your upbringing, by the way you looked or by the social context that oppressed you.” Wow, how prescient.

Hyden also writes about Springsteen’s friendship with anti-war activist and Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic, whose memoir, “Born of the Fourth of July,” was greatly influential for Springsteen. The friendship led to a benefit concert for Vietnam Veterans of America. 

So, what makes us like Springsteen? His lyrics hit home for Americans, and his backstory of being a working-class kid from New Jersey who made it out of roadhouses and onto the big stage is inspirational. The book does nothing to refute the rocker’s “everyman” image.